The Bastard and the Doctor
by TheTenthDoctorIsMyGuardian
Summary: A sad boy with no place in the world stumbles upon a madman with a box.


Jon Snow was walking glumly in the Godswood. The air was cold and it bit on his face like tiny needles of ice, but he didn't care. He didn't want to go back into the castle, where Lady Catelyn will surely silently express her hatred as she always did when she saw him, and where his lord father will be telling Robb all there was to know about being Lord of Winterfell, and where Sansa will be addressing him as her half brother and never by his name, and where Bran will be climbing the walls of Winterfell. The only person who made him even consider going back was Arya. He wanted to laugh with her and ruffle her hair and call her 'little sister', but even she wasn't enough for him to want to go back. He felt tears of anger and frustration sting his eyes. He blinked them away angrily. He was no longer a boy, nearly a man grown and he mustn't cry.

He stared at the face carved in the Heart Tree. Its eyes seemed to stare back at him, right into his heart and soul and mind, seeing everything. He turned away from it uncomfortably, but he could still feel it staring at his back. It sent chills running down his spine.

A strange noise pierced the silence of the Godswood. Jon has never heard anything like it. He turned around trying to find the source of the noise as the wind grew stronger and stronger until he found himself narrowing his eyes to see the big blue box materializing right in front of him. Jon backed away from it with shock. Before he could react, the box opened and a man came out of it, stranger than any man Jon has ever seen. The man walked right out of the box, closing the door behind him, and looked around for a moment before noticing Jon standing there.

"Hello," said the man, who appeared just as confused as Jon felt. "Would you mind telling me where I am exactly?"

It took Jon several seconds to remember how to speak. "In Winterfell, my lord," said Jon.

The man nodded. "Right, right, sure, and… Where would that be?"

Jon blinked. How could he not know where Winterfell is? He was so confused he forgot his manners. "Winterfell is the Heart of the North!" he cried.

"Really?" the man asked. "North of where?"

"Westeros, my lord," said Jon, who was growing more and more confused by the second.

"Well, clearly," the man said, "I have no idea where I am. But that's okay," he added with a grin at Jon's bewildered expression, "it's more fun that way."

"Who are you?" asked Jon. And then, as he suddenly remembered, quickly added, "My lord."

"My name is the Doctor," said the man. "But more importantly, who are you?"

"My name is Jon Snow, my lord."

"Snow?" asked the man. "Well, it seems there's quite a lot of snow around here. I wonder, is this a common name?"

"Snow is the name all bastards born in the North are given at birth," said Jon flatly, unemotionally. He thought maybe if he pretended not to care, he would stop caring.

"I see," said the Doctor. "How old are you?"

"Ten," answered Jon.

"Well, what are you doing here all alone?" asked the Doctor.

Jon didn't know what to say. He wanted to just shrug it off, but something about this Doctor man made him want to tell him everything.

"I don't want to go back to the castle," said Jon. "My father is Lord Eddard Stark of Winterfell and my brothers and sisters are all highborn and I'm just a bastard. Lady Catelyn, my lord father's wife, hates me. She hated me since the moment she saw me. My father won't tell me who my mother was. I don't even know if she's alive. I don't belong there."

The Doctor was quiet for a moment, and Jon suddenly feared he may have said too much. The man didn't care. He didn't even know him.

"Do you think being highborn is better?" asked the Doctor eventually.

"Well, yes," said Jon, not sure what the Doctor was trying to say.

"I was highborn once," said the Doctor, "and it wasn't much good either. I didn't feel like I belonged so I ran. I'm still running. But all the people who made me feel like I didn't belong are gone now. I miss them every day, even those who hated me."

Jon didn't understand. "What are you saying?" he asked.

"The thing about belonging is that if you think you don't belong people know. They feel it. And it makes them believe it. Did you try belonging? Really tried?"

Jon felt his cheeks redden. "Not really," he admitted.

"Well, there you go, then!" exclaimed the Doctor. "You need to try belonging otherwise you're just the bastard boy. If you try, you can become one of them."

"But what if I try and I still can't fit it?" asked Jon.

The Doctor shrugged. "You can always find someplace you do belong."

"I can join the Night's Watch when I come of age!" cried the boy with excitement.

The Doctor smiled as he walked into his box. "Goodbye, Jon Snow," he said.

"Goodbye, Doctor," said Jon, feeling slightly sad he was leaving.

The door closed and the noise and the wind came back as the box gradually faded away.

Jon smiled to himself. Somehow, ruffling Arya's hair suddenly seemed much better than five minutes earlier. With a stupid grin plastered on his face he ran back into the castle. He saw Lady Catelyn frowning at him as he ran by her but he didn't mind. He may have been just a bastard to her, but not to all. To some, he was Jon Stark, a brother and a son.


End file.
